Risa Summer '14 Review

Captain's Blog Stardate 92039.91

The Risa event has come and it's time to give a review! Next week I'll continue with my "top 5 episode" blogs. The next one will be the Romulan episodes.

So in the Risa event we have the same activities as before such as using the floaters to go through different tracks (which I always found fun) and hunting for horga'hn around the resort. Let's not forget the dance party! Now we have a bunch of new activities and toys to play with

Let's start with the sand castle building. Is anyone else interested in seeing how far this progresses? It's kind of fun and can be just a little annoying when you have to hurry and do something before the castle is destroyed. The way you can "customize" your castle is a pretty nice feature too.

My favorite part has to be the powerboards. I saved up some of those lohlunat favors from last year which was a smart move because I was able to buy the UFP superior powerboard right away. That thing is fast! I got 2nd place on my first race which made me happy. Even so, I still find it fun just speeding around the island on it. The animation while your surfing is pretty incredible too. I think Cryptic captured that perfectly.

Some people are complaining that it's unfair for some people to have superior powerboards while others have rentals. What do you think? Is there an unfair advantage or does it depend entirely on skill rather than speed?

All that's left is to earn enough pearls to get that Risian cruiser and see how it handles. Does anyone know if there is a custom interior for it? I'm pretty sure I read that there isn't but I just want to confirm.

In the comments answer my two questions about and of course let me know your thoughts on the Risa event! Is this your first time? Do you like it? What do you think about all the new additions?

Written by Attilio on June 08, 2014 at 09:37 pm

Comments

Tororosso(Member) said...June 09, 2014 at 05:42 am

so only way to earn pearls is by 40 pearl reward from daily hover mission?

so you win races for tags, thats then used to raise pets. can u then selll those pets in exchange?

collecting favors can be tedious work since the event duration goes on for weeks. plenty of time not to forces urself to dance,race,hunt,race, for hours.

Well, I know for a fact, that having a Superior Powerboard does not necessarily give you an advantage in the race. I bought one, but was still surpassed by players with Standard Powerboards and did not get into the Top 3.
So I have to admit, that I suck at the races and it IS about skill. LOL

Regarding the Luxury Cruiser, I really hope for Cryptic that they come with an awesome interior. It is the whole point for me getting it in the first place.

All in all, I think Cryptic did a nice job with preventing a mega grind of Favors. However, the overall rewards are somewhat oddly distributed. While the Dance Party and the Horga'hn Hunt gives you around 50+ Favors, the Race "only" gives you 30 on first place and the Sand Castle building only gives you 5 Favors?

In my opinion, the Race rewards need to be adapted to give the Winner 50 Favors.

The Drops of the Risian Tropial Bird Eggs are also somewhat weird. I had 10 Horga'hn Hunts with no Eggs on my main Character. Then I used an obsolete Character, made 4 Horga'hn Hunts and got a total of 4 Eggs. So, what's up with that?

However, all in all, it is a very nice Event and I hope, that the Ship discount will be expanded to the Winter Event, even though that would cost me 680 Q Autographs. LOL

Yeah, I have seen a Forum post about that. In all honesty, having a Luxury Cruiser as a Combat vessel is odd enough. Well, I guess I choose the Blast Door option then and close the Windows altogether. Seriously, the Devs had not the time? They should have taken it. Tease us with the possiblity and then letting us down.

just found out something funny i did because of this even...that switching servers too much leads to getting my arse booted out of the game for 15 mins penalty(guess)

i was attempting to race at lowest populated server and also switching right before the race command given and rival racers revealing their super boards. lol did this 3x and got kicked out.

btw im a rental surfer.

also noticed 1000favor board are 10+ seconds ahead at finish line compared to rentals. those 1500favor are insanely fast..just don't bog down on corners or hit a rock or a tree. those guys dispersal in my mini map before the first hard left turn 1. but at the same time it takes maybe idk 30+runs of 1st place before you catch up on 1.5k favor investment.

but sometimes i manage to maintain a good run Renters can compete against racers w/500favor boards, they just need to miss a turn or a couple of jumps.

noticed I lost tons of time if I take the right lane, instead of the left during the fork on the road section. The left lane route is 2 seconds faster than the right i believe.

keeping board as straight as possible all the time, taking left inside lanes(there are sections you are allowed to cut corners), hitting jumps for speed boost(double tap space and hold space bar) and accelerator pads, these are free bonus boost that's key to winning a podium place or even a winning the race w/ right board.

idk if there's a benefit in buying faster jetpacks. hunt activity seems to award you random amount of favors regardless if you're first guy to loot or not.

i usually do these activiteis at top of the hour dance, race at :14 mins , hunt soon after race1 ,race at :38, normal STF (daily rep).
and or Jetpack(daily) tour.
oh yeah like the guys said, im now trying to raise my Tiki pet and hatch eggs.

I hated the powerboard races. I don't have a problem with the idea of players being able to buy equipment that gives them an advantage in the race. I DO have a problem with that equipment being purchased with something you get as a reward for winning that race (the favours, in this case). That basically means that most players who are in their first event, or didn't save enough favours from the previous year, will usually be unable to reach a ranked place in the race, which means they receive a smaller reward and therefore need even longer to get the superior equipment and level the playing field. Either don't have the race reward with favours (my preferred option, perhaps it could reward up to 5 pearls for a win instead? Or something else that lets you buy something that won't improve your racing?), or don't allow favours to be carried over from one festival to the next.

My other bugbear is the flag system.

THIS.

HAS.

GOT.

TO.

GO.

At the moment, it's brutally unfair to anyone who isn't leading in the final stretch, and even then they can lose if they mis-time their flag grab. What's worse, though, is the way the flag moves when it's picked up. If you're running a close second, you're actually better off letting yourself drop back rather than contesting the race to the finish, because if you cross the line close behind the leader you're almost certain to miss the 2nd Place flag because the *@£%ing thing isn't there for you to aim at!

I can see a few alternatives:

1) Eliminate the flags entirely. I don't see why this can't be done. There may be a technical reason, I'm know nothing about programming, but I it seems unlikely - after all, the game has no problem identifying when you've reached a waypoint in either space or ground missions. The only credible theory I've heard for why the races (either the powerboards or the skating race at the winter festival) don't end like this is that the devs don't want to be deluged with emails from whiney little gits brandishing screenshots of the end of the race and saying [dweeb voice]"This clearly shows that I crossed the line first, why didn't I get the rewards for first place, this is unacceptable, I demand that you give me my rightful prize, I expect better service from this game that I don't subscribe to or buy Zen to support bitch bitch moan moan etc etc [/dweeb voice]. Personally, if I was Cryptic, I'd deal with that by announcing at the outset of the festival that all results are final, Cryptic aren't responsible for lag or latency issues and no appeals will be considered, then back it up with a penalty for those who complain regardless (a temporary ban from contacting customer support, ashort ban form the festival content itself) accompanied by a message explaining why. However, it's been suggested that I have a rather robust approach to customer relations.

If the flags are, in fact, essential, then why not either:

2) Make the flag static, so at least all racers have a fixed point to aim for and won't be faced with their flag suddenly appearing beside them (or behind them - in one race, I was very close second across the line, and had actually crossed it before the winner grabbed their flag. The 2nd Place flag appeared between me and the finish line. By the time I'd turned around, four other players had finished the race and I only got the basic reward). Or

3) Have all the flags (1st, 2nd, 3rd and Finish) showing together so that, again, you can aim for the flag you think you're likely to get. For this to work, the flags would have to be colour-coded so they could be identified at a distance.